AFOTEC Safety program takes top Air Force honors

Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. -- The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center is the winner of the 2011 Secretary of the Air Force Safety Award, Category II and the Col. Will L. Tubbs Memorial Award, Category II. According to safety officials, these awards exemplify the best of the Air Force safety teams.

"These are AFOTEC team awards, not Safety Directorate awards," said Roderick A. Earl, AFOTEC Director of Safety. "You can't have low on and off duty mishaps rates across the command while positively influencing decision makers across multiple programs and just attribute it to a select few; it doesn't work that way, it's a team effort."

"I believe the reason we have achieved winning the two highest safety awards in the Air Force, is due to both excellent communication and a high level of personal risk management," explained Mr. Earl. "These awards are a testament to our teams, headquarters and detachments, ability to inform decision makers on inherent system safety risks within our systems under test, in order for them to make informed decisions on how to proceed."

"I'm honored to work with our great safety professionals and am grateful we're all so safety conscious," said Maj. Gen. David J. Eichhorn, AFOTEC commander. "I congratulate our Safety Directorate, but also all our team members for their safety awareness."

The Secretary of the Air Force Safety Award is the highest award in the U.S. Air Force Safety Awards Program that recognizes the best overall mishap prevention program in all safety functional areas.

The Colonel Will L. Tubbs memorial Award for Ground Safety was established by the Directorate of Aerospace Safety to recognize the most effective ground safety programs within the major commands. Colonel Tubbs was the first Air Force Chief of Ground Safety. Early in World War II, while still a lieutenant colonel, Colonel Tubbs was responsible for developing and directing a ground safety program for the U.S. Army Air Corps. Except for the short period following World War II, he served as the military, and subsequently civilian, chief of the Air force Ground Safety Program from its inception until his retirement from civil service in November 1961. He died in 1974.